I have been reading a lot about Smoke losing his job because of numerous reasons, one being attendence being down at the Box. If we remember correctly Skip had a couple of years in the beginning that his attendence wasn't great. He didn't have the team to sell to the fans so he sold everything around the team. He had "kiss the pig" contests and other things. It was fun and you really got to know the players and people came to the games. Smoke just didn't care. He wasn't about the fans or I guess thier money. I guess he may regret that now, huh?
I don't really follow college baseball that much but living here in Shreveport this story has been in the news/papers enough to strike my interest. From what I've gathered the LSU fans don't put up with anything less than a trip to the CWS EVERY YEAR. Tiger fans had gotten used to a certain standard of success that CSL simply wasn't meeting. At the end of the day (with any sport) it's all about winning. And in LSU's case it's all about winning CWS's. Good luck in the search for a new coach.....just don't take Bama's coach.:grin:
From your post, it IS obvious you don't follow college baseball--in particular, LSU baseball because, that is not the case at all with 99.9% of LSU's fans. All that we mandate is that the team competes well in the SEC, HOME Regional and gets to host a SR every few years with a trip to the CWS tossed in every few as well. What Laval's tenure doesn't reveal is that his teams were pitiful to watch in Omaha, they were NOT competitive, not worth the well-earned money we spent to travel to Nebraska to watch them "compete." But I'll tell you this: Those teams like Stanford, CSF, Texas, USC, Long Beach St., etc are FUN to watch, and made the trips worth while. Two of my most memorable games (collegiate or professional) was watching the Texas and Rice's second game of the 2003 CWS (5-4 Rice Win) and the first Stanford and CSF (2003 as well) game (6-5 Fullerton Win.) LSU has lacked its own style for years... even the 2000 Championship team lacked it to a certain degree, but they sure as hell turned it around once they made it to Omaha.
Bamabuzzard-------I don't really follow college baseball that much but living here in Shreveport this story has been in the news/papers enough to strike my interest. From what I've gathered the LSU fans don't put up with anything less than a trip to the CWS EVERY YEAR. Tiger fans had gotten used to a certain standard of success that CSL simply wasn't meeting. At the end of the day (with any sport) it's all about winning. And in LSU's case it's all about winning CWS's. The Gov. --Thats right, here at LSU we want the best and we usually get it to. At LSU we strive to be and act the very best we can. Since when has high expectations become a bad thing to have for a sports team? According to Vince Lombardi, "Winning is not everything, it's the only thing".
That's what I figured. And there's nothing wrong with high expectations. Bama fans have the same obsession when it comes to football. If we're not going to play the game to win it all then why play? As a fan why spend all the time, money and energy to follow a team if all you expect is a "good showing" every now and then? You're preaching to choir on this one.
99 out of 100 schools would kill to have 2500 people attending baseball games. At LSU that is terrible attendance. That speaks alot about your program when a down year is still top 25 in attendance. Also there is still a waiting list for season tickets.
Glad someone agrees. It's not tough logic, it's just part of being an LSU fan... y'know, it comes with the territory. We are the best, so naturally, we expect the best...:thumb:
99.9%??? I beg to differ there. I know lots of LSU baseball fans that expect the team to go to the CWS year in year out. In fact there are tons of fans on this site that bitched when Smoke didn't make it past the first round in the CWS. It's not an outlandish expectation if you consider what this program has done over the last 15 years or so.
While there is some truth to the fact that some LSU fans are overly critical (see Bama football), to encapsulate the Smoke firing around that is rather ignorant. Missing a regional was a big problem, but the biggest problem was that Smoke let the program decline, meaning there was very little chance that he would be able to compete with the best teams in the SEC in the near future. It was evident that recruiting and player development were major problems with Smoke at the helm. That's 2/3 of what's needed to be a quality head coach. People keep talking about how much baseball Smoke knew, but being a great situational manager doesn't solve a starting pitching staff that has an ERA of about 6. Expectations are higher here than some places for good reason. LSU, the name, this history, the fan base, and very soon the baseball facility will recruit itself. The TOPS program in Louisiana, if used properly, is another advantage. Any competent coach who steps onto campus will thrive. Any coach who flounders simply can't get it done. I predict that if we land a quality coach, LSU will be competing for Super Regionals again within 3 years...maybe sooner.
